The US Senate's Sergeant at Arms (SAA) would no longer BlackBerry for official work

The SAA announced earlier this week that staffers would no longer be able to request new BlackBerry OS 10 devices for official work. In their place, the SAA is offering use of the Samsung Galaxy S6 on Android or the 16GB iPhone SE.BlackBerry informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport, and Classic) has been discontinued. Future carrier order fulfillment will not be guaranteed due to limited remaining stock.Existing BlackBerry users won't be left high and dry, should they decline to transition to another OS. BlackBerry device support will continue for the foreseeable future. BlackBerry is committed to maintaining their support of our devices to include uninterrupted warranty and technical support.

Once we have exhausted our current in-house stock, new device procurements will be limited, while supplies last, to warranty exchanges only.

As of June 29, 2016, our BlackBerry device stock levels are:

RIM Classic Verizon BlackBerry – 275

RIM Z30 Verizon Black BlackBerry – 160

RIM Classic AT&T BlackBerry – 45

RIM Passport AT&T BlackBerry – 45

RIM Z10 AT&T Black BlackBerry – 45

RIM Q10 AT&T Black Blackberry – 40

This is a significant moment in BlackBerry's history. I mean, the company used to utterly dominate the mobile device market thanks to its focus on security, email (remember, this was before messaging and social media took off) and a physical keyboard (again, this was the era before Swiftkey).iOS and Android did manage to catch up to the BlackBerry OS within a matter of years, resulting in the company's precipitous decline and subsequent flirtations with bankruptcy.

The devices still endured in zip codes 20510 and 20515. Long battery life, an email heavy focus, and good size (complete with a douchey belt holster) kept this little niche alive in the subterranean halls of the Capitol.

But the wheels of government turn slowly -- especially when it comes to the adoption of new technologies. Even after the general public -- and the President himself -- abandoned BBOS for competing systems, BlackBerry handsets persisted on Capitol Hill for more than a decade. But not anymore.Source: Bomble